In the drilling and completion industry, the formation of boreholes for the purpose of production or injection of fluid is common. The boreholes are used for exploration or extraction of natural resources such as hydrocarbons, oil, gas, water, and alternatively for CO2 sequestration. To increase the production from a borehole, the production zone can be fractured to allow the formation fluids to flow more freely from the formation to the borehole. The fracturing operation includes pumping fluids at high pressure towards the formation wall to form formation fractures. To retail the fractures in an open condition after fracturing pressure is removed, the fractures must be physically propped open, and therefore the fracturing fluids commonly include solid granular materials, such as sand, generally referred to as proppants.
A conveyor belt system is used to deliver the proppant to a hopper, which subsequently feeds to a blender as needed, for blending with liquids and other additives to form the fracturing fluid. Conveyor systems may also be used to convey solid product chemistries into a blender tub.
Conventional conveyor belts are head driven, meaning the head pulley is powered in order to pull the conveyor portion of the conveyor belt up through the system, because it is easier to pull a conveying portion that is weighted with material than it is to push the conveying portion. These conveyor belts are limited in the angles to which material can be conveyed as material will naturally slide downwardly. To negate some of the effects of gravity, plates are sometimes added along the conveying surface of the conveyor belt to limit the sliding of the material. The length of the conveyor belts may also be adjusted in some conveyor systems.
The art would be receptive to improvements in conveyor systems for bulk materials to add to the flexibility of their use in operational systems.